Talking About Public Art

We invite you to visit three new pieces of art in the City of Williamsburg at City Square near the new Stryker Complex.

DAWN Williamsburg artist Merrilee Cleveland’s fine art sculpture, “Dawn,” was juried into the 2015 Arts District Outdoor Sculpture Garden and was initially placed at Wells Fargo Bank. On September 8, 2016, the City of Williamsburg purchased the sculpture from Cleveland and moved it to its permanent home near the Stryker building on N. Boundary Street. The work’s mysterious quality is simultaneously ancient and contemporary. It is influenced by ancient art, literature, mythology, and cultural studies. The medium is lost wax process, cast bronze. Cleveland has been creating sculpture for over 25 years. After earning her BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1992, she partnered with a group of artists in Milwaukee, WI to form Vanguard Sculpture Services, LTD, a full service art foundry which still operates today. In 2000, she left that business and embarked on her solo career as a sculptor. Since then her personal odyssey has taken her across the US and abroad. She has had studios based in Wisconsin, Arizona, California, and Colorado. She has been appointed as a Visiting Artist at the Hellenic School of the Arts on Paros Island, Greece, at The Colorado Springs School, and most recently at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. She lives in Williamsburg with her husband James, and they have one daughter.

COMMITMENT “Commitment” and all of artist Derek Chalfant’s work feature symbols of the importance of family life in the development and security of a child. This artwork consists of a stainless steel rocking chair that cradles a bronze infant. The medium is lost wax investment cast bronze. At the base of the rocker is a bronze briefcase. The rocker symbolizes the comforting relationship between parent and child. A wedding ring rests on the infant’s shoulders to symbolize the security that comes from the institution of marriage. The briefcase is a symbol for the importance of employment to the security of family life. The legs of the rocker are elongated to show the perspective of a child as it looks up toward the seat of the chair. The artist is a public school teacher and an associate Art Professor at Elmira College, Elmira, New York. He holds an MFA from University of Notre Dame and has placed art in public projects throughout the U.S.

​UP UP & AWAY “Up, Up and Away” is a colorful painted stainless steel sculpture by North Carolina artist, Jordan Parah. Parah’s fabricated metal pieces are a result of research that connects contrasting forms, shapes and colors to represent people who are all different but equal. The works strive to create balance and harmony out of diversity. Parah holds a BFA from East Carolina University, and she is the North Carolina State Representative for Tri-State Sculptors. Her works can be seen in public and private collections throughout the southeast, and her studio is in Greenville, N.C. “Up, Up and Away” was juried into the 2016/17 Williamsburg Arts District Outdoor Sculpture Gallery and subsequently purchased from that collection by the City of Williamsburg and moved to the Stryker Complex in early September. For more information about these and other artists in the Arts District Outdoor Sculpture Gallery, visit TACL-VA.org.